Wood shakes and roof shingles are conventionally made of cedar, redwood, or cypress, all of which are decay resistant. Roof shakes often provide an aesthetically pleasing shadow effect on the roof and nicely complement shake or other natural wood siding, in part due to the upper surface topography, and in part due to the taper that is unique to handsplit and resawn and tapersplit wood shakes.
However, compared with other commercially available roofing materials, wood shakes have numerous disadvantages. For example, wood shakes provide a fuel for fire. Accordingly, many states have passed laws and implemented building codes that prohibit the use of wood shakes or shingles for roofing. Next, wood shakes are recommended for installation only on roofs having specified pitch and slope minimums. Further still, wood shakes must be installed with spacing between adjacent shakes to allow for expansion of the wood, so as to avoid cupping in the shingle or shake. In addition, throughout their useful life wood shakes and shingles are prone to breakage from heavy loads, such as falling limbs or workmen; and they tend to brittleness and friability near the end of their useful life.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an artificial wood shake that included all of the aesthetically pleasing features of natural wood shakes, but overcame the liabilities. Furthermore, it would be desirable that an artificial wood shake provide increased weather resistance, increased fire resistance, increased wind resistance, and adaptability to various structures and roof layouts.
Numerous products have been proposed to address these and other problems inherent in wood shakes. For example, Goodhart et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,603 discloses a shingle structure made from galvanized mild steel. Fifield U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,940 teaches a composite roofing element with a first layer of aggregate based material, a second layer of material having a lower density, and a wedge shaped region depending from its underside. Wells et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,611 describes a roofing shingle including organic, resinous material and an inorganic filler material, with the appearance of a wooden shake shingle. Rehm, III U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,677 discloses an insulated covering for building sheathing comprising foam insulation, and shaped to accommodate simulated shake roof aluminum roofing panels. Manner U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,339 teaches a simulated shake shingle made from plastic for replicating the random appearance of natural wood shakes. Kemerer U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,318 describes molded exterior building panels formed from thermoplastic material. Waller U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,184 discloses a panel for installation with similar adjacent top, bottom, and side panels to form a roof having the appearance of a wooden shake roof. Sanders et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,011 teaches a method of manufacturing an exterior facing layer for vinyl siding, including molding a pattern of depressions and protuberances into a sheet of a thermoplastic polymer simulating cedar shake shingles. Finally, Wilson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3.848,383 describes a structural surface metal shingle covering for a wall or roof of a building or the like including a plurality of metal shingle cover elements disposed in parallel courses upon a framework providing a surface.
The foregoing patents reflect the current state of the art of which the present inventor is aware. Reference to, and discussion of, these patents is intended to aid in discharging Applicant's acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be relevant to the examination of claims to the present invention. However, it is respectfully submitted that none of the above-indicated patents disclose, teach, suggest, show, or otherwise render obvious, either singly or when considered in combination, the invention described and claimed herein.
The roofing shake of the present invention solves the problems inherent in natural wood shakes, incorporates the desirable features delineated herein, and includes other advantages over other conventional roofing materials as well.